Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am sure he is interested; he would have had a lot to do with putting that together, there is no doubt about that. You heard the dryness of his speech before, taking his lead in dry politics from the member for Hotham, but I am sure with regard to education the member for Corangamite is dedicated to growing tertiary education throughout that area. We had representatives of Deakin University in the parliament only a few days ago; they were very proud of what they are doing at Deakin uni. My daughter was trained and did her degree at Deakin University at Geelong, so we have an association with that area even though I am from the other side of Victoria.

The training school will produce an additional 120 new doctors annually for country Victoria. The Australian government will be funding the 120 places at Deakin University and will also provide $18 million for capital infrastructure costs. A key element of Deakin’s medical school is that it will be focused on meeting the health needs of rural and regional Australians. The opening of these new medical schools and the provision of more places in this measure demonstrate the government’s commitment to meeting this challenge.

As I said before, 40 new places recently went to Monash University in Gippsland. Monash University is now just outside my electorate, but, because of my previous stint in McMillan, when the electorate used to go all the way to Traralgon and include Monash University, I still have a close association with the people at Monash and their endeavours to spread the tentacles of education to places like Leongatha and to reach out to people and students to give them an association through that Monash stream—even those doing a bridging course that can bring them to a point where they can enter tertiary education. There are some very good ideas out there. Recently 40 places for training, particularly in nursing and medical areas, were announced for Monash in Gippsland. It is in the electorate of Gippsland, Peter McGauran’s seat. However, those 40 places are just the beginning. There are a number of other places in the medical area and nursing field that we as a community can bid for as well. I am hoping that it will not just be 40 places out at Monash but that many more will be trained in that area.

To recap, no member of this House can walk away from the fact that we do not have enough GPs in this country. We have allowed a situation to arise over many years where we are asking more of them. We are asking them to do more. We are asking them to be on top of every new drug that comes along. At the same time, they are ageing and we are coming to a time when they are over 55 in great numbers—and we are asking them to stay on and do more. We need to train more doctors. We need to do all we can to support the existing services that we have. They need to be strengthened by allied services, whether in disability services or aged care. I believe that the government in the overall package is doing that very well.

We are addressing ageing in the home and, therefore, taking pressure off GPs as much as we possibly can by increasing those services. However, it is an Australian cultural phenomenon that, the first time there is a sniffle, we go straight to the doctor. We are building support services and nursing programs that can be of greater support to GPs. We are doing all we can. If there are new ideas on how we can further help GPs in country areas, I will be the first one to take those ideas to the minister. I commend this bill to the House.

See this speech in context